The Hot Line of Ombudsman's office received only 19 calls about irregularities during the Yerevan Council of Elders election, press-service of the Ombudsman's office reported.
They recalled that during the parliamentary election on 6 May 2012 they received 178 calls, and 214 during the presidential election on 18 February 2013.
In a statement released after the voting, Ombudsman Karen Andreasyan says that all the political forces running for election were offered free conditions for conducting their campaign and had sufficient representation in the polling centers to oversee the voting process and the tabulation of ballots.
"Journalists and observers from non-governmental organizations followed the entire process with an unprecedented activeness, informing the public of almost every irregularity, even the slightest one. Verified and unverified reports by observer organizations and journalists to highlight essential and non-essential violations, including suspicions and hypotheses were no more than 600 in number. Compared to the previous presidential election, the police demonstrated a higher operational efficiency in reacting to the civil society's reports on vote rigging. Notwithstanding that, they have revealed and singled out no more than 143 reports meeting reliability criteria. The reports on ballot stuffing, electoral bribe distribution and other essential wrongdoings, at least those which looked justified at first sight, amount to fifty, whereas the vote
balance among the contestants essentially exceeds the figures unveiled.
Considering the above mentioned, the Yerevan Council of Elders election can be considered free, there being no legal grounds to distrust their legitimacy, the report says.